Toilet-paper



(No Model.)

Patented July 21, 1896.

2 SheetsSheet 2. E. JEROME.

TOILET PAPER.

(No Model.)

Patented July 21, 1896.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDGAR JEROME, OF NORWALK, CONNECTICUT.

TOILET-PAPER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 564,248, dated July 21, 1896. Application filedNovember 2, 1898. Serial No. 489,888. (No model.)

To (0Z5 whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, EDGAR JEROME, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Norwalk, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Toilet-Paper, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to toilet-paper of that kind in which the sheets are laid in packages.

The general object of myinvention is to provide a package composed of single sheets or multiples of sheets, such multiples of sheets forming what I denominate composite sheets, which are formed and defined in the manufacture, and which can be easily taken hold of and removed from the package or aggregation of such sheets. Subordinately to this object I have also sought to provide a package in which the number of sheets in the package can be more readily determined by examination of a sample package, and, further, I have sought to give the package some degree of ornamental shape.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 shows in perspective a package of toilet-paper made in accordance with my invention. Fig. 2 is a plan view of a single sheet. Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic view of a composite sheet. Fig. 4 shows the blank which, when folded as in Fig. 3, forms a unit or composite sheet comprising two single sheets. Figs. 5, 6, 7, S, 9, and 10 are views similar to Figs. 3 and 4 of modified forms of composite sheets, like Figs. 8 and 4 being of diagrammatic form.

Fig. 1 shows a package of toilet-paper in general form like those heretofore in use.

These acka es have heretofore been corn-v posed of separate or separable sheets of paper, of rectangular or substantially rectangular fiat form and uniform dimensions and shape, and generally held together by some fastening device or holder on the upper edge.

The extreme thinness and softness of tissue-paper, which is the kind of paper most desirable and commonly used for this purpose, renders it quite difficult to grasp the requisite number of sheets. This difficulty is increased by the method used to form these packages, which method is to subdivide a bundle of large sheets by means of a papercutter, the sheets forming the large bundle being tightly compressed and then severed by a knife having a shearing cut. This, especially when the knife is dulled, tends to unite the margins of the sheets and renders their separation more difficult. Moreover, it is impracticable for the ordinary purchaser to count even a sample package in order to as certain (what is often the case) if the actual number of sheets is less than the usual or advertised number. In the forms shown in the figures above noted these difficulties are obviated. In these the sheets are of different contour or arrangement and are laid in the package,with sheets (or groups of sheets forming what I have called composite sheets) laid in alternation, so that a part of one sheet or group projects beyond the contiguous sheet or group, and some portion of the edge of each will lie across the body of the next succeeding.

In Fig. 1 I have shown a package composed of sheets a all of the same form, but of different arrangement, so that each sheet extends beyond the margin of the next adjacent sheet. The particular form of the sheet shown in Fig. 1 is that of atrapezoid, formed from a strip of paper out obliquely on one end and at right angles at the other. The packageis formed by laying down the sheets or units with the rectangular ends registering and with the oblique ends reversed, so that, of the under sheet, a triangular part 1 2 3 underlaps, and of the upper sheet a triangular part 1 4 5 overlaps. The entire package of the requisite size is formed by the successive addition of the sheets alternately reversed in position, as shown. This leaves always an edge, as 1 2 of the upper or outer sheet, ex'

posed or lying upon the partially-exposed surface of that next below, and this edge is always easily grasped for removal, and without liability of including in the grasp any other sheet, the fingers being applied to the exposed edge which lies upon the surface, that is to say, upon the edge 1 2. In practical manufacture two sheets are laid together and similarly, and then two others together, but reversed to the first two forming the composite sheets mentioned above. More than two may be used, if the demands of the trade or the kind of paper require; but whether the sheets IOO group being laid similarly, but reversed to contiguous groups, the construction is the same in substance, and the single sheet or all of the composite or group sheets may be removed as a unit of use, and without removal of any sheet or any group of sheets next adjacent, and whether the single sheet or the composite be so laid each has the exposed edges of 'the sheets are serrated and thus the edge 1 2, or an equivalent edge.

The principle of my invention requiring only the exposed and free accessible edge, t is manifest that the particular contour is imma terial. The margin shown as oblique maybe waved instead of straight, or of other character, as illustrated in Fig. 9, in which alternate sheets areformed with reentrant and salient angles. I11 fact any irregular form or diverse form may be used, and the exposure of the edge of a sheet may be affected by the alternate arrangement of a diversity of form in the sheets as much as by diversity or alternation of arrangement (as the reversal shown) of symmetrical or identical forms. In both the diversity of margin is secured, with the exposed edge of each sheet, whether single or composite, with the same result of facility of removal and certaintyof the number of sheets removed.

The composite sheet may be conveniently made of a folded blank, such, for example, as those shown in Figs. 4, G, S, and 10.

Fig. 3 shows an example in which a blank of the shape shown in Fig. 4 is folded on itself on a central transverse line, the inclined and curved edges of the uppermost sheet forming the exposure. These may be then made up into packages which are multiple of the units.

Figs. 7 and 8 are like Figs. 3 and 4 except that the oblique edges are straight.

I11 Fig. (3 the sheet is cut with the ends inclined in opposite directions, and when the sheet is folded 011 itself the inclined edges coincide. This may be used as a unit or composite sheet and is laid in the package alternately, the same as a single sheet of the same form.

In Fig. 10 the blank is shown ascut with a reentrant angle on one end and salient on the other, and when folded, as in Fig. 9, the exposed edges are as indicated in said Fig. 9.

These various forms and arrangements are not exhaustive, but are given for illustration. I do not confine myself to them.

All the packages receive some ornamental appearance, both from the diversity of shape of the ends of the sheets and from the serrated edge; but it will be observed that the exposed serrated edges lie on the surface of the next sheets. This serration is done in the usual way by a saw edge. Its serration adds to the appearance and more distinctly defines the lines of edge, and further causes the fingers to catch more readily upon said edges.

hat I claim is- 1. A substantially flat package of sheets of toilet-paper assembled in the package with a portion of the free edge of one sheet lying across the body of the next succeeding sheet, substantially as described.

2. A substantially flat package of toiletpaper consisting of sheets having edges deviating from a right angle, said sheets being arranged diversely and thereby showing exposed edges on the underlying sheet extending beyond said edges, substantially as described.

3. A package of toilet-paper consisting of units of use all formed of the same shape, but with edges deviating from a right angle and arranged alternately to expose the edge of one unit upon the underlying unit extending beyond said edge, substantially as described.

4.. A package of sheets of paper consisting of units of use of such form that when assembled into the package, some portion of the edge of each unit will lie across the body of the next succeeding unit, the edges thus lying across the body being serrated, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

EDGAR JEROME. Vitnesses:

HENRY E. COOPER, M. F. ALTEMUS. 

